Best Ways To Set Up A Notation Field

[BoatSchool]

What is the best method for setting up a notation field for multiple entries, with a scroll function, timestamp, username, etc? The notations would primarily be used to track contact/communication information between clients and staff.

[dansmith65]

When I did this for the first time, I used a single text field with a button that would insert the current timestamp and account name, then position the cursor in the field where I wanted the user to enter text. It worked, but was a little awkward and made it too easy for someone to delete old "entries" (by accident, or on purpose).

I was staying away from putting each communication in a related table because I did not know of a satisfactory way to display all items, regardless of the notes length (because if they are in a portal, the portal row has a fixed height).

Since then, I have moved to utilizing a method I learned about here: http://sixfriedrice.com/wp/filemaker-9-tip9-web-viewers-without-the-web/ (download the file, open Notes.fp7)

This uses JavaScript in a web viewer to display related records, which allows you to display a record that has a single line of text, then a record with 10 lines of text, with no gap between them and without cutting off part of the longer text.

I hope I was clear enough that you could follow my thought process.